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Repeatedly, Numbers does not successfully open xls files for me. Results look like: "?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>" ...

I'm having trouble opening an xls file in Numbers. Numbers opens it but the result is a long string of xml encoding. I've tried changing delimiters, etc., without success. All documentation says opening xls should be automatic. But something is amiss. Please advise. Thank you.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 21, 2019 3:51 PM

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Looks like it was saved in XML format, even though it has an XLS extension instead of XML. Excel figures that out and will open it but it is not a format Numbers imports. I recall these xml formatted Excel files are typically downloaded from web pages. Hopefully one of the proposed solutions (use an Office clone app or download the file in a different format) will work for you.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_XML_formats

Posted on Oct 22, 2019 3:52 PM

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11 replies

Oct 21, 2019 8:35 PM in response to SGIII

Thank you. Numbers detects the encoding (UTF-8) and that could be changed in Advanced Import Settings. However, as far as I can see, Numbers itself determines the file format conversion. In this case the import file suffix is .xls -- but your comment makes me wonder if I changed it to .xlsx maybe it would make a difference. ... Ah, no, Numbers replies with "The file format is invalid." Tried .xml but that is even worse.

It remains a mystery.


Oct 22, 2019 6:50 AM in response to SGIII

I'm downloading from a site that offers an "Export to Excel" button; but it has no other options. I looked at the Settings link (on the displayed page) but it doesn't have settings relevant to exporting data.


Compounding the mystery is that a person I'm in touch with said they'd had no problem(!). It looks like it's my Mac/Numbers settings, somehow.

Question marked as Best answer

Oct 22, 2019 3:52 PM in response to tim_mcs

Looks like it was saved in XML format, even though it has an XLS extension instead of XML. Excel figures that out and will open it but it is not a format Numbers imports. I recall these xml formatted Excel files are typically downloaded from web pages. Hopefully one of the proposed solutions (use an Office clone app or download the file in a different format) will work for you.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_XML_formats

Oct 22, 2019 4:27 PM in response to Badunit

Ah-ha -- If Numbers does not import XML formatted Excel spreadsheets, that's surely the explanation. Appreciate the Wikipedia link. Looking again at Numbers documentation and see that it's conspicuously silent about XML.

Thank you.


I'll ping the other person and ask them if they use a Windows machine, which would account for successful import there.

Oct 22, 2019 5:00 PM in response to tim_mcs

I've seen the problem with old .xls files, whether they be saved as xml or not (I think I understood at one point .xls were in fact files with xlm in them). Many websites give the option of downloading to some sort of .csv. Well worth double-checking that. Also, sometimes it's possible to simply copy-paste from the website.


Opening in LibreOffice and saving as .xlsx or copy-pasting from there should do the trick if the website really doesn't offer any other option than an old (very old) Excel format.


Tend to doubt this is a Windows vs MacOS issue.


SG

Repeatedly, Numbers does not successfully open xls files for me. Results look like: "?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>" ...

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